The Roxy Theater in East Nashville had long been a neighborhood gathering place for first dates, family outings and classic films. It was the centerpiece of a vibrant commercial district that included everything a neighborhood needs within walking distance — a grocery store, barber shop, pharmacy, post office and clothing store.

But since the 1980’s, the block had fallen into disrepair due to irresponsible property owners, high crime, unemployment, and a decline in economic investment. Even in the midst of East Nashville’s resurgence in the early 2000’s, complete with hip eateries and trendy homes, the Roxy block remained blighted and neglected.

So, in June 2013, a group of concerned citizens led by Dane Forlines decided to do something about it. They noticed how loved the old Roxy Theater was, but also saw the lack of hope felt by the community in ever returning the old block to its former glory. Killing two birds with one stone, Dane took the principles of tactical urbanism to both re-engage the residents with their community and revitalize the block.

Dane and his group immediately kicked off a “Save the Roxy” campaign that regularly showed movies on the lawn of the old theater, installed public art on the block, and replicated the iconic Roxy marquee sign. “Save the Roxy” culminated at a “Roxy Revival Festival” that encompassed the whole block. Together with the community, Dane and his crew transformed the vacant street with pop-up artisan shops and restaurants, street trees, benches, lighting and landscaping, and the theater itself hosted live music acts and films throughout the day.

During the event, over a dozen inquiries were made about leasing the vacant spaces, and today six different spaces on the block have been remodeled and new businesses are opening.

Just like many Better Block projects, the “Save the Roxy” project showed East Nashville how civic engagement and a hands-on approach can revitalize a neighborhood overnight.

The Better Block ideals build upon tried-and-true principles that have been codified and outlined by urbanists in the past. One such source of inspiration is David Sucher, the author of City Comforts. In it, he explains the essential elements of walkable, livable cities in three simple rules:

1. Build to the sidewalk (i.e., property line).

2. Make the building front “permeable” (i.e., no blank walls).

3. Prohibit parking lots in front of the building.

Sucher emphasizes that, more than architecture, the success of a neighborhood lies in the orientation of its buildings. “The key decision in creating a walkable, pedestrian-oriented neighborhood, is the position of the building with respect to the sidewalk. This decision determines whether you have a city or a suburb,” he says.

Build to the sidewalk

Property lines should always abut the sidewalk, channeling pedestrians into one area to encourage neighborly proximity. As a sub-rule to this requirement, Sucher suggests that the entry level of a storefront should be as level as possible with the street, not only to abide by ADA laws, but to make it easy to see into and enter the building.

Make the building front permeable

“Life attracts life,” says Sucher. Therefore, pedestrians should be able to see and participate in the activities and amenities offered in their community; place windows and doors along the sidewalk instead of blank walls, don’t block parks with high walls, and ensure that the main entrance to a business is immediately off of the sidewalk. A sub-rule to this mandate is to prohibit anything that would block visibility from the street, such as mirrored glass or heavy blinds on storefront windows, which discourage pedestrian engagement with the businesses in their community.

Prohibit parking lots in front of the building

In true urban neighborhoods, there are no parking lots in front of the buildings; they are either below, above, behind, or beside it. Sucher doesn’t deny the necessity of parking lots in cities, but they should never be the focus. “Parking lots are crucial,” Sucher says, “But unless you are in high school, or are at a tailgate party before a football game, or at a classic car concours d’elegance, parking lots are not the place you want to hang around. It is ironic, of course: we invest such great money and emotion in our cars and yet we don’t want to hang around them in parking lots.” If buildings must be built to the sidewalk to encourage pedestrian life, there can’t be a parking lot separating the business from its patrons. “Save the front for people,” Sucher says.

The following GIF illustrates how something as simple as the placement of a parking can dictate whether an area is suburban or urban:

Though Sucher’s rules are simple, they are often ignored in today’s planning processes in favor of big box stores, tight budgets, or strict parking requirements. Better Block attempts to take neighbors negatively impacted by these malpractices and re-creating vibrant, walkable neighborhoods by bringing storefronts to the sidewalk, making them inviting to the pedestrian, and encouraging streets and neighborhoods that don’t ignore the importance of the car, but are primarily designed for people. Any planning department can follow the three rules as a basic pattern for creating a successful city. “After the three rules,” says Sucher, “everything else is epilogue.

You can read more about Sucher’s three rules in “City Comforts,” or his summary online here.

In its inaugural Better Block, The Tampa Heights Civic Association, Congress for New Urbanism, and Urban Charette are teaming up to bring a historic block on Franklin Street back into the city’s focus. The project will take place on Saturday, January 10th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Franklin Street between 1-275 and Henderson Avenue.

“By bringing Better Block to Tampa Heights, we will simulate what a thriving and lively corridor would look like on Franklin Street,” said Brian Seel, president of the Tampa Height Civic Association Board. “The block is part of a Tampa neighborhood where we are starting to see urbanization. Our project builds on this momentum and gives the community a voice in the development of Franklin Street.”

Using Better Block’s principle of creating small-scale, short-term improvements to encourage lasting change and bringing the community together to build and improve their neighborhood, the group hopes to transform the block into Tampa’s “Yellow Brick Row.” The event will feature local vendors, retailers and residents hosting pop-up storefronts, local breweries will be offering beer samples, and the street will be reimagined with Cuban art and music, parklets, street art and entertainment for the one-day demonstration.

Earlier this year, Tampa Heights neighborhood members participated in a visioning exercise with the CNU, sharing their preferences and desires for the future of historic Franklin Street, and the Better Block is the group’s opportunity to see their ideas in action.

In 2014, Andrew Howard, Co-founder of the Better Block project, became a Loeb Fellow at Harvard. This opportunity has allowed him to study the projects that have developed around the world and led to real change on the ground and stronger ties between communities. Andrew originally came from the traditional urban planning world, but tired of its strict rules and lack of regard for on-the-ground realities that derail most planning initiatives. See more about Andrew and his path in the above video.

That’s me, Andrew Howard, co-founder of the Better Block with the 2015 class of Loeb Fellows at the Graduate School of Design. Now half way complete with the year long program, my thoughts have already changed about what can be done to make American Cities more liveable. When I first started the program, which brings planners, architects, landscape architects and all sorts of do gooders out of practice and into academia, I thought most of my days would be spent arguing with Harvard (STAR)architects about good building form.

There have been some days that I wanted to run out of a class because the dialogue had turned to modern architecture as the standard design method for all buildings. I regress, what I have found is that architecture and architects are not the problem.

My first realization was that the problem with architecture and city building today is that we don’t have enough developers. The majority of new development in America is done by multinational conglomerates that build projects using a master developer approach. Meaning they get huge loans for hundreds of millions of dollars, receive public incentives of equal amount and build projects on a short time frame all at once. Which makes for a great ribbon cutting, but a lousy community. So architects are forced to come up with designs and programs for clients that are most of the time only focused on return on investment (ROI) and completion dates. See the Domino Sugar Factory in Williamsburg below.

This instant gratification city planning and development is directly counter to the way we built some of the most beloved places in the world. Like the High Streets in London that have multiple owners, built over a number of years. The character and life that is found on these streets have yet to be duplicated in any master planned project I have seen.

There has been much debate and trials of changing zoning in American cities to try and require developers to build small, walkable places. New Urbanist plans, form based codes, performance based zoning and even no zoning have been touted as the way to rebuild our fragmented cities. Many have resulted in places that got the form correct, but something seems to be missing. I call it the “Truman Show” effect. A little to plastic. Maybe perfection is boring!

The question I have now come to is not how to change architecture or zoning, but how to change who is building the city. For most Americans it is easier to invest in a company in a far away country or on the stock exchange than in the coffee shop across the street. In fact, the Security and Exchange Commission says that if you are not an accredited investors with a net worth of $1 million and income of at least $200,000 per year you can’t openly solicit for investment in Real Estate. So most of America is being built and is owned by less than 3% of it’s population. Increasingly the capital is also coming from outside the US.

A combination of changes to laws and practices are beginning to disrupt the status quo Real Estate practices in the US. First, the Wall Street Journal reports that equity crowdfunding holds the greatest potential for opening Real Estate investment up to everybody. The Federal Securities and Exchange Commission is yet to write the new rules, but when it does we could see the greatest transfer of wealth in America. People will be able to move their investment from low yield stocks and bonds into higher yield Real Estate investments, making the American Dream closer to reality for everyone. Political pressure from the US House and Senate on bureaucrats to write the rules is well overdue and is restricting the progress of the JOBS Act and the full recovery of the economy post Great Recession…not to mention local funding would be the catalyst for great small developments and a platform for community building.

Second, Lean Urbanism is tackling the red tape of local government building and zoning controls that have contributed to the extinction of the small developer. In most cities it is easier to build a 40,000 sqft Wal-Mart than a single story streetfront 5,000 sqft commercial space. We have basically built a set of rules that benefits corporate big box and big lot development over small. Lean urbanism is set to dissect codes and bureaucratic process down to the bare bones to allow for innovation and small developers to take hold. Coined Pink Zones, think less red tape, these enterprise zones in cities will allow for small developers to seed themselves and grow.

Still the question arises, who will build the cities of the future? We can clear the financial hurdles, sweep away the zoning, but who is going to do it? On-line platforms that marry facebook with investing promise to match investors with developers, but that still requires small developers.

We know more people are becoming interested in the state of the city and are no longer satisfied with being users of place, they want to be owners and builders. To date we estimate over 5,000 people have undertaken the organizing of a Better Block and over 300,000 have attended a version of one. We have been successful in making city planning cool again! Better block is speed dating for future investors, developers and business proprietors to meet and test ideas out in real time. From those projects people have gained the courage and first hand skills to start businesses, run for planning commission, show up to support a zoning changes and some really want to be developers.

Working with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Project for Lean Urbanism and the National Association of Realtors we will create a Developer in a Box set of tools for individuals and groups that are seeking to try their hand at development. Imagine if lessons learned could be passed down and if technology could fill the gap in small developers skill set. Apps for pro forma, ROI, maintenance, operations and taxes could be created to give a leg up to small timers.

This work will culminate in 2015, during my second semester at Harvard, when I will produce my findings in the Harvard Real Estate Journal, host a forum at Harvard with leading finance professionals and test our ideas in several cities across the US. The result will be a playbook for the next generation of city builders in the United States. A developer in a box platform that will radically change how cities are built one block at a time. Its going to be a great year!

On November 15th, the City of Fresno, California launched its first Better Block effort on East Ventura Avenue, spotlighting ways to make a more pedestrian friendly street. The project was part of the Revitalize Ventura / Kings Canyon effort, funded by an Environmental Justice grant from CalTrans. Team Better Block worked with the Fresno Council of Governments, Placeworks, and various community organizations to develop and implement a rapid community-built streetscape plan utilizing locally sourced materials. The temporary measures demonstrated how proposed street improvements will bring more vitality to the corridor.

Ventura Ave beforeVentura Ave after

Beginning in September, community groups gathered to walk portions of the blocks of Ventura Avenue to review ways to address issues with the street. Like many commercial corridors, Ventura Avenue is uninviting and generally unsafe for pedestrians and cyclists. Ideas like creating more landscaping, improved crosswalks, and areas for outdoor cafe seating were all included in the initial planning process. In order to repair a portion of the street’s missing historic edge and create human scale, Team Better Block made plans to install a shipping container with vertical architectural elements. The temporary structure was designed to fill in the gaps in the urban form caused by excessive setbacks and parking requirements.

Working with teams of community volunteers, work was set out the day prior to the Better Block with construction of multiple parklets, pallet furniture, and crosswalks. On the morning of the event, landscape crews from Tree Fresno arrived and set out landscaping based on plans provided by Broussard Associates Landscape Architects. The landscaping created a canopy and soft edge that invited pedestrians to linger and enjoy the space.

Local school bands, mariachis, and a classic car show were programmed for the event to create additional opportunities for the community to re-take their block. By the project’s conclusion, hundreds of residents and stakeholders visited and lent support to the effort. Local news services including NPR and Telemundo covered the Better Block event.

As a result of the Better Block, Placeworks was able to collect valuable feedback from the community about the proposed changes to the Ventura Avenue. Although the changes, including curb bump-outs and landscaped improvements, had been discussed at community meetings, this was the first opportunity for area residents to see them in action. Placeworks can now take the community’s feedback from the event and parlay it into their plans for permanent changes in the corridor. The Fresno Better Block yet again demonstrated the power of temporary improvements to energize a community and fast track change.

Everyone wants out of Micheal Brown’s neighborhood (Canfield Green) according to several resident accounts.

Now Canfield Green’s residents find themselves trapped in the same kind of segregated, violent, deteriorating neighborhood they had hoped to leave behind.

That process took years, but since Brown’s death, the change at Canfield Green has been swift and ominous. “It’s a ghost town over here now,” said David Whitt, a 35-year-old married father of three who’s lived here for a year and a half. “Nobody wants to live like this.”

Place like Canfield Green were built to fail, using out dated urban design principals. Lets take a look at the Neighborhood of Michael Brown:

This is not a place anyone wants to live anymore. Went first constructed it was attractive, but as the newness wore off it aged poorly and the form did not support investment. Now lets look at a low income development in Baltimore and compare designs.

The issues in Ferguson are not limited to form, but how could we start to repair parts of cities that were never built to foster community and sustainable economy? The City of Saint Louis has completed four Better Blocks to date and there was even one in Ferguson in 2011. The role of temporary changes that can insight new perceptions about a place might play a role in Ferguson, but for now we pray for justice.

A marvel from above, looking out over the sprawling Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, MI.

Albert Kahn was known as the architect of Detroit and built more than 400 buildings there. Some of these massive industrial buildings had no precedent in the World and subsequently no land use or building codes to govern their construction. In the words of Jana Cephas, Harvard Graduate School of Design Lecturer, “the Dearborn planning commission was silent on the regulation of these new building types.”

Free to use his own ingenuity and discretion, Kahn (and Henry Ford) crafted buildings to augment the assembly line, like the giant crane pictured below. The complex of buildings became an industrial trend setter for the 20th century and were emulated around the world. What if the City of Dearborn would have demanded that these buildings that housed the second industrial revolution had to conform to rules for the first revolution? I doubt a 19th century millworks building would have been able to produce enough military aircraft to win WWII!

Where are our places today to experiment with how the built form will prepare itself for the next revolution, the Human industrial revolution?

What we need is fewer rules and more discretion…. Too much of the time, the government tells people exactly what to do and exactly how to do it… rather than just describing its general goal and letting human beings use their own creativity and initiative to get there. The Future of Government, Cass R. Sunstein (2013)

The Better Block has been testing over a weekend how to adapt old buildings and spaces to the new sharing, innovative, human focused economy we are currently living in. We have done this as guides, gentle curators that express a goal to people and allow them to create without too many boundaries. The results of everyday people innovating in the city are fantastic!

Volunteers in Norfolk, Va where asked to create shade for a new plaza. They harvested bamboo and hauled it to the site on bikes. The result was a beautiful and functional!

20000 SqFT Building in Norfolk, VA that was once a car parts store and then a furniture store had gone vacant. With no dedicated parking or interested parties, what do you do with it?

Volunteers populated the space during a Better Block with retail, office, maker space, coffee shop, beer garden, live entertainment and a little skateborading. Now a permanent establishment, Alchemy NFK was granted a variance to operate as a “beer serving flea market”.

Communities across the country are redefining how architecture, land use and building codes need to respond to the changing economy and people centered approach to building the city. What cities are listening and who will be the next trend setter? While Detroit is getting a lot of press for attracting young creatives because of relaxed code enforcement, what city is going to invite innovation?

Lean Urbanism with support from the Knight Foundation is going to test the idea of Pink Zones (think less Red Tape) in several cities across the US this next year. Already, places like Boston, MA are looking at Neighborhood Innovation Districts that are converting buildings designed for the old production economy into the new creative economy.

Docester Bay neighborhood in Boston, MA converted a hot dog processing plant into a culinary incubator and food truck port. Down the street a former autobody station is being converted in to a Fabrication Laboratory for the community to experiment with technology and building methods.

Opportunity exists in second, third and fourth tier cities to be innovators. The bureaucracy is smaller and the threshold for risk lower. Using the better block method to dissect codes, rapidly test business and development methods we will try out our own version of innovation districts in various small to medium sized cities in the mid west and east coast. We hope to release these groundbreaking projects in the coming weeks!

In the mean time catch Andrew Howard current Harvard Graduate School of Design Loeb Fellow and Better Block Co-Founder at the Texas Big Six Conference.

Monday’s Better Block Community Walk through a block in the North Hill neighborhood of Akron.Jason Roberts, co-founder of the Better Block project, presenting on the Better Block

The Knight Foundation and Team Better Block have begun laying the groundwork for their first collaboration with the city of Akron, Ohio. The community of North Hill has been selected for the city’s first Better Block and residents, business owners, and city staff have all partnered to start preparing the Cuyahoga Falls and Main Street area for a project that will combine efforts with local organizations like the International Institute, Urban Vision, and AMATS.

A large group of stakeholders attended the Community Walk kick-off for the project on Monday, and ideas were submitted for potential pop-up businesses in the area.

Jason Roberts speaking at TEDxOU on the Better Block Project

Better Block Project Map

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Speaking and Presenting

Jason Roberts is exclusively represented by the Lavin Agency. Please contact info@thelavinagency.com
Andrew Howard can be contacted at info@teambetterblock.com

The First Better Block, Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas

Better Block Australia Tour

The Better Block Project

The "Better Block" project is a demonstration tool that rebuilds an area using grassroots efforts to show the potential to create a great walkable, vibrant neighborhood center. The project acts as a living charrette so that communities can actively engage in the "complete streets" buildout process and develop pop-up businesses to show the potential for revitalized economic activity in an area. Better Blocks are now being performed around the world, and have helped cities rapidly implement infrastructure and policy changes.
This site is dedicated to providing news, information, and utilities to help cities develop their own Better Block projects and to create a resource for best practices.